Magnum drove through the dark to the address Dresden had given. Salvatore was unconscious, tied up, and Magnum didn't understand his behaviour. None of it. First the fact that he sold Mimi out to the medical company and forgot all about it and now this. But he didn't know the mind of a vampire, so he knew what was normal for a vampire and what wasn't.
Magnum was not scared of Mimi even she was vampire. She was different. maybe Salvatore is so old. Magnum shook his head. Is it not his job to understand Vampires.
He arrived, and it was already dark when Dresden, a tall thin man who was not too insubstantial but had strength, muscle and magic, came through the door and helped drag the vampire inside.
The house was just a normal house, a kitchen and living room, a bedroom of sorts. Dresden dragged Damon down to the basement where his magic room was. The floor and walls were decorated with magical symbols and runes that flickered as they entered the room, Dresden muttered a few words and the oppressive atmosphere that had made Magnum hesitate to enter the basement disappeared and he realized it was some kind of magic to keep strangers away.
There was a circle embedded in the floor, with a sturdy chair placed in the middle. Dresden dragged Damon to the chair and bound him to it. He muttered a few more words and touched the metal shackles that bound the still unconscious vampire to the chair.
Dresden explained nothing to Magnum. He worked. He was used to working on his own and although some people had come to him over the years wishing he would start teaching, he never did.
Dresden had been through bad things, terrible things and he had had to make hard choices, fought in wars where he had no business fighting and all this had made him strong but also grey. He could no longer claim to be merely good, but he was in the middle ground between good and evil.
He could keep himself and his morals in order, but he didn't want to teach anyone else because there was always the risk of corruption. Many who sought his guidance were genuinely pure, good, and Dresden let them be and last pure when he didn't start teaching and guiding. His magic alone could have corrupted some, and he knew the world was a nasty place and desperately needed all purity and goodness.
Magnum sat on the bench and watched the wizard work. First, he picked up a chalice, a silver chalice with patterns and everything, and a dagger. The wizard sliced open Damon's wrist and poured his almost black blood into the bowl.
The cellar was dimly lit and the blood that was in the bowl looked almost black in the ghostly light of the candles. Then Dresden went over to one shelf with big glass bottles containing various liquids. He chose a purple liquid.
He took an empty half-liter bottle and poured enough from the big bottle to fill maybe a third of the smaller bottle. Then he put the bottle on the table, next to the bowl with Damon's blood in it.
He looked at the bowl, muttered something, and moved his fingers along the rim of the bowl, first three turns clockwise and then two turns counterclockwise. The blood bubbled and boiled, and Dresden's eyebrows furrowed slightly.
He spoke in a slightly sharper voice and put two fingers into the blood. The blood turned blue and bubbled, and Dresden kept his fingers there. Until the blood had turned a silvery color, like a mirror, and was still.
Then he poured the now silver blood into the bottle with the magic potion in it. The bottle became full and Magnum could have sworn there wasn't that much blood in the bowl to begin with.
The broth in the bottle was now a pale purple and Dresden put the cork on, took, and shook the bottle vigorously. And it turned a darker color. It was finally black and then Dresden put it down on the table.
He next went to a tall cupboard, opened it and, to Magnum's surprise, it was full of medical supplies. Dresden took one packet and went to Salvatore. He was still unconscious.
Dresden looked at Magnum and said, "The potion needs to be administered to the stomach and a nasogastric tube is the best way but this specimen will probably wake up so why don't you come hold this head in place and I'll get the tube in place."
Magnum stood up. He took a firm grip on the vampire's head as Dresden opened the pack and pushed the tube into Damon's nostril. Damon woke up and cursed, trying to get away, but Magnum held on and Dresden relentlessly slid the tube all the way in.
Then he poured the liquid into the hose, mercilessly. Damon cursed, tried to get loose, and finally, when all the broth was inside him, he passed out again. Dresden pulled out the hose and Magnum released his grip.
When the potion worked, it actually pushed the core back into the cage that the evil had created and separated the evil spirit from the core. It also weakened the evil so that it couldn't get to the surface.
The potion worked as it was intended by bringing the shell, which was only one part of the core to the surface and into the lead.
When Damon woke up a few hours later, he remembered everything and was terrified. He had been a monster. He remembered the rage, a rage so great and so hard that it had somehow burned away his self-control and made him do incredibly brutal things.
Damon thanked Dresden. Magnum had already left, and as he was just getting out, his phone rang and it was Bran. Bran wanted to meet and when he told him where he was, Bran promised to send someone to pick him up and bring him to him. Bran said he would help Damon deal with it and then get things sorted out with Mimi.
Damon was waiting for a ride. It was a werewolf he didn't know. He said nothing, just wondered in his mind how he could have hurt Mimi so badly, well yes he was fucked up but after two weeks of mental torture, he couldn't really remember the only things his teeth had spilled while he'd been sitting there thinking about things in a rage. Apparently, Mimi is not the only one with some sort of anger management problem.
It took two hours to drive there, and when we got there, Bran was there. It was a slightly smaller house. Probably Bran's own. They ate and Damon started on Bran about what he'd done to Mimi.
Bran looked at him for a moment and then said, "You are an old, powerful creature. A vampire who married in a very special and binding way. Your instincts were on the surface and you reacted. Your reaction was violent, but so was Mimi's. Never has she so directly opposed you, right after your wedding. Quite an unusual thing, I have to say. It's as if she was almost testing you. You'll get your way with Mimi. There's nothing to worry about."
Damon thought and Bran assured him that everything was fine. Damon was the head of the family, and Mimi shouldn't have done what she did. It was obvious, and Mimi caused a reaction in Damon, the need to teach.
The evil continued to be weakened by the potion, but somehow Bran knew he was there without informing Damon. Bran spoke to Damon in a reassuring and calming manner, but always slipped in something that made the good side feel guilty and doubt itself, further weakening it. Seizing the opportunity, the evil one manipulated Damon just as Bran had instructed.
Damon was already beginning to doubt his own feelings and his bond with Mimi. The connection he once felt with her was fading, replaced by a growing self-loathing that consumed him like a snowball rolling downhill. The evil one was satisfied, knowing that soon he would resurface and provoke the same self-loathing reaction in Damon once again. This self-loathing weakened the good side the most, granting strength to the evil.
For the past two weeks, the evil had relished in the pain and fear of the seemingly invincible. Even if he didn't reveal himself, he found pleasure in knowing that each day he inflicted something even worse upon the invincible. It wasn't just fear and terror, but also physical pain. Oh, how he was patiently awaiting his time to strike.
Damon stayed with Bran for five days, then went on the road, did a couple of gigs, and took his time. He'd heard that Mimi had been kept asleep for a week. She'd woken up a couple of days ago and feared Damon.
Damon was heartbroken at the very thought and he knew that when he got out of these gigs, he would have to face Mimi. Smell her fear, but he was a telepath. Maybe he could help her somehow to cope and overcome her fear.
He knew he had done badly and hoped there was at least something he could do. He and Mimi were forever linked by their vampire marriage and the mere memory of when Mimi feared him so much that she died and how he always turned her heart back on, didn't bother to wait for her natural return when he had been impatient, and hadn't wanted to give her that much rest, was almost too much to bear.
Damon sighed and focused on his gig. He could hear the babies crying all the way out. He took a deep breath, his face expressionlessly cold as he walked into the large room where the babies' voices could be heard. The door closed behind the vampire and the voices, one by one, fell silent.
I woke up in Ohio's house and remembered the fear, the terror, the chase. I sat up in bed and my hands trembled. I was physically fit, a little thin again, but my bones were intact and no internal organs or muscles hurt.
Damon. Just the thought of him made my heart pound and a cold sweat rise to the surface. I was terrified. Well, that's what he had planned to do. Well done. Very well done.
Now I just didn't know what was going to be a pack life anymore because the mere thought of him being in the same house was unbearable. I knew that if he came to this house, I would run away. And fast.
I took a shower and tried to think of something else, but I couldn't yet. I made myself function and got dressed. My hair was short and blonde. Mirella was awake, and she instructed me how to change the color of my hair. She wasn't awake for long. Soon she had retreated to her coffin to sleep again. I just put my hair in a ponytail and went down to the kitchen to eat. It surprised me when Colin and Charles were in the kitchen making breakfast.
Colin and Charles had been tending to me and explained everything. How, according to Dresden's theory, Damon had now taken his humanity off and taught me a lesson. Well taught. Go ahead.
They said that Dresden's potion had brought Damon back to normal, and he had been very remorseful, had spent a few days at Bran's, and then gone to gigs, where he still was.
At the moment, as far as I was concerned, he would be on the road for months. I still couldn't bear the thought of him coming to see me. I sat down and ate what I was given, but I realized how scared I really was. Just the smell of passionfruit made me shiver.
I held myself in check and didn't let the men notice my powerful reaction when Charles finished eating the passionfruit. Once Colin and Charles were satisfied with the way I had recovered, I was eating and acting. They went about their business.
I remembered all the chasing, the stalking, the psychological pressure in my head. When I'd had my humanity off, I'd done my job. I wasn't determined to get back at Damon for fucking strangers, but we're different, apparently.
I was still in the house by myself, and the days passed as I ate. I got myself a little better mentally too, but I couldn't help the fear and terror. It was too strong, too deep in my mind.
A week had passed. Every day, Damon scared me just as much. I couldn't help it. Adam called and asked how I was and when I told him I was physically fine, he hung up. Adam's voice had been tightly matter-of-fact, as if the pack leader had just inquired about the well-being of a pack member.
He didn't ask if I was sleeping, didn't ask me anything. Didn't invite me back to the same house. Fine then, not by force. He was still cranky with me; I see. I couldn't find safety anywhere and I remembered Bran's words again. Only you are the best to help yourself.
I tried to get myself in shape. I tried to find the mood to do gigs, but somehow the thought of gigs always made me think of Damon, and I was afraid that he wouldn't allow me to do gigs and would do the same lesson again.